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Monthly Archives: December 2016

I don’t normally talk about people who have passed on during the holidays but I must say, I learned a lot about the musician Leonard Cohen and the songs he wrote over at my community radio station 88.1 kdhx after his death earlier this year.

So the kids and I were watching what are known locally as the Musial Awards. They recognize remarkable individuals and amazing stories of character, kindness, selflessness and integrity in sports.

Anyway, they had one story on college football player Travis Rudolph and how sitting down to have lunch with an autistic young man named Bo Paske at his school became a story that went viral.

During the story, his mom talked about when her son was diagnosed with autism and how she was told by the doctor he won’t ever hold a job, play team sports or even live on his own. What many parents of kids with special abilities hear.

Anyway, as she related that fact to the reporter of the story, my son kept looking at me. Sort of like, do you worry about that with me? I didn’t really pursue the discussion. I guess I just wanted to see if it would sink in with him and leave it for a conversation on another day. One that will come soon enough.

So today was the day we had our Transition IEP and I must admit, I was pretty prepared. In fact, when I left, I felt like I had done a good job doing my homework. Now the next step is to prepare for his future while at the same time, still looking at some options. In some ways, it’s just the first step on a long journey but, so far, so good.

So at school my son has dog therapy every other month but, here at home he has cat therapy. Mind you, he’s not a trained therapy cat, he’s just our cat and his name is Oreo. As is probably obvious to most people, his name is Oreo because he’s….

Now while this article isn’t necessarily on autism or any type of special ability, the brain is important to everyone’s life regardless. It’s also a topic that my dad, who taught psychology back in the day, was very interested in. I both miss and love you dad!

Tonight I thought I would post a piece of my son’s artwork from his Graphic Design class that he’s taking this semester. I would say that his decision to take this class was a bit of a surprise but that said, he’s done well in really all of his school work and this class is just another example of that. It’s a quote from Winston Churchill: